Come work with us at the Berkman Center

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The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is hiring for four jobs at the moment — a rarity to have such opportunities open. We love creative and fun people who are interested in ideas, in making those ideas real, and working hard in the public interest at the intersection of law, technology, and society. The jobs we have available are of four different types: a senior software developer, a systems administrator, a community organizer, and a senior researcher. Please let us know if you are interested via the Harvard jobs site and encourage others to apply.

Totally brazen typosquatting in Mass Governor's Race

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The Independent candidate for governor of Massachusetts, Christy Mihos, is typosquatting at http://www.kerryhealy.com. His Republican opponent, Kerry Healey (note the extra “e”), must not be too amused. The people of Massachusetts aren’t in too much danger of actually electing Mr. Mihos in November — the race is plainly between Healey and the Democratic nominee, Deval Patrick (I support Mr. Patrick) — but his typosquatting antics certainly don’t help the case for his candidacy. Who wants a governor who cheats — or whose staff cheats — in such an obvious, silly way?

Terry Fisher's Testimony on Digital Media

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Yesterday, Prof. Terry Fisher testified before a Congressional subcommittee on the digital media crisis on college campuses. He presented the idea of a digital media exchange, or “Noank Media” as the Canadian variant is called. This idea, presented initially in Prof. Fisher’s book Promises to Keep, is sounding less and less radical as time goes by.

Sony's new web e-book reader to support (some) RSS feeds

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Sony is unveiling its new online bookstore and e-book reader on October 1. One interesting twist is that they will allow you also to subscribe to certain RSS feeds on the device. But only a small handful of feeds, reports Stuff. The article says:

“The device and service will also let users download from the Really Simple Syndication or RSS Feeds of popular blogs, including Salon, Slate, Huffington Post, engadget and Gizmodo to read on the device. But it will only downloads from approved feeds, restricting users from freely downloading from any RSS feed.

“‘We’ll be expanding and improving it beyond that,’ he added.

“Newspapers and other periodicals will not be offered at first, although Hawkins did not rule out such features down the line.

“‘We’re taking a serious look at it,’ he said. ‘But we’re focusing on books and personal content at launch.'”

No doubt the copyright regime, and the lack of clarity around licensing of RSS feeds, has something to do with this approach by Sony.

Knowledge@Wharton on social networking sites

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I’m not sure it’s all right, but a provocative piece about Facebook & co. at the excellent Knowledge@Wharton site, with lots of quotes from Kevin Werbach, who usually is right. The implication is that they will become the victims of their own success, expand too far, and the digital natives will leave them for the Next Hot Thing.

The short study says: “Underneath Facebook’s expansion plans is a conundrum facing any social networking site: How do these companies expand into new markets without losing what originally made the site popular and alienating their existing customers? For instance, if a site starts out as a trendy online hangout for young people and then begins courting senior citizens, it is unlikely its initial customer base will stick around, say experts at Wharton.

“Couple that dilemma with the fact that social sites’ business models are already fragile, and a loss of focus could be fatal.”

Reuters, NewAssignment.Net team up

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Chris Ahearn at Reuters has made another sage investment in a non-profit, this time to Jay Rosen’s NewAssignment.Net. Chris is the visionary president of Reuters Media. He is the key driver, along with his colleague Dean Wright, behind Reuters’ partnership with Global Voices.

Chris writes, at Huffington Post:

“While the Internet is rapidly transforming the world of traditional media, it also presents amazing new possibilities in terms of strengthening the investigative arm of journalism. The Internet is the perfect vehicle for galvanizing the public to become more involved in reporting.

“Earlier this year, Reuters made a contribution to the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School in support of Global Voices Online * the largest and most successful international bridge for bloggers. Global Voices Online is a select guide to conversations, information and ideas appearing on various forms of participatory citizen media such as blogs, podcasts, photo-sharing sites and videoblogs.

“While encouraging good journalistic ideas is a worthy goal in itself, Reuters believes that supporting new and varied networks of creators with different perspectives is good for both journalism and business.

“Ultimately, journalism is about the story and the pursuit of truth; it is not about the news industry, a j-school or a traditional newsroom structure. By building bridges and finding new ways to augment and accelerate the creation of quality journalism, we believe that ultimately the public will benefit and perhaps change their minds about the noble profession of journalism.”

Richard Sambrook of the BBC comments approvingly on the move here.